one gave
father and mother their freedom in 1829, and gave them forty acres of
land to tend as their own. He paid father for all the work he did for
him after that, and was always very kind to them.

My mother was born in slavery, in Marion County, Kentucky, in 1802. She
was treated very mean until she married my father in 1825. With him she
gained her freedom in 1829. I was the last born of her eighteen
children. She was a good woman and joined church after coming to Indiana
and died in 1917, living to be one hundred and fifteen years old.

I have heard my mother tell of a girl slave who worked in the kitchen of
my mother's master. The girl was told to cook twelve eggs for breakfast.
When the eggs were served, it was discovered there were eleven eggs on
the table and after being questioned, she admitted that she had eaten
one. For this, she was beaten mercilessly, which was a common sight on
that plantation.

The most terrible treatment of any slave, is told by my father in a
story of a slave on a neighboring plantation, owned by Daniel Thompson.
"After committing a small wrong, Master Thompson became angry, tied his
slave to a whipping post and beat him terribly. Mrs. Thompson begged him
to quit whipping, saying, 'you might kill him,' and the master replied
that he aimed to kill him. He then tied the slave behind a horse and
dragged him over a fifty acre field until the slave was dead. As a
punishment for this terrible deed, master Thompson was compelled to
witness the execution of his own son, one year later. The story is as
follows:

A neighbor to Mr. Thompson, a slave owner by name of Kay Van Cleve, had
been having some trouble with one of his young male slaves, and had
promised the slave a whipping. The slave was a powerful man and Mr. Van
Cleve was afraid to undertake the job of whipping him alone. He called
for help from his neighbors, Daniel Thompson and his son Donald. The
slave, while the Thompsons were coming, concealed himself in a
horse-stall in the barn and hid a large knife in the manger.

After the arrival of the Thompsons, they and Mr. Van Cleve entered the
stall in the barn. Together, the three white men made a grab for the
slave, when the slave suddenly made a lunge at the elder Mr. Thompson
with the knife, but missed him and stabbed Donald Thompson.

The slave was overpowered and tied, but too late, young Donald was dead.

The slave was tried for murder and sentenced to be hanged. At the time